By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Following his arrest this week for alleged securities fraud, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli resigned his office.
Turing garnered infamy for the 5000 percent price increase of Daraprim, a $13.50 medication indicated for patients requiring treatment of Toxoplasma gondii–an opportunistic pathogen afflicting the immune-compromised such as AIDS patients. Monthly treatment cost now associated with the drug can be upwards of seventy-five thousand dollars. See previous articles HERE and HERE.
Interim CEO Ron Tiles thanked the 32-year-old for “helping us build Turing Pharmaceuticals into the dynamic research-focused company it is today.”
Turing Pharmaceuticals issued a press release which reads in part:
Zug, Switzerland, December 18, 2015 — Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative treatments for serious diseases and conditions, today announced the resignation of Martin Shkreli from the position of Chief Executive Officer and the appointment of Ron Tilles to the position of Interim Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Tilles will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He said, “We wish to thank Martin for helping us build Turing Pharmaceuticals into the dynamic research focused company it is today, and wish him the best in his future endeavors. At the same time, I am very excited about the opportunity to guide Turing Pharmaceuticals forward. We remain committed to ensuring that all patients have ready and affordable access to Daraprim and Vecamyl. Research Development on new medications continues to be a priority for the company. With the dynamic leadership of Eliseo Salinas as head of Research and Development and Nancy Retzlaff as head of Commercial Operations, Turing Pharmaceuticals is poised for great success in the coming years.”
I find it interesting that this press release mentioned Daraprim and how it is coupled with all patients having affordable access. It seems rather certain that Turing is responding to the pariah reputation it has earned as a result of the price increases but hedged its bets by focusing on patients and not insurance providers and institutions, which have been under Shkreli made a target of high pricing. It will certainly remain to be seen what happens in practice, especially in light of the cash cow it now can still milk.
Turing will have a serious PR problem to contend with despite the resignation of its flamboyant and extravagant CEO. It could establish some goodwill with some reasonableness.
Depending on single streams of revenue can be problematic, especially when science discovers alternate drug treatment regimes and large insurers update their formularies. There are many forms of justice, my friends.
By Darren Smith
Source:
Deutsche Welle
Turing Pharmaceuticals, Press Release
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Haha, autocorrect. “made everything so unaffordable “
Here’s a thought.
Why not just be honest about it and put it on the ballot on its own merits? Instead, they pushed the ACA through by outright fraud. The vast majority of people polled said they liked their health insurance and wanted to keep it. So they destroyed those policies via the ACA, and made health care way more unaffordable than it ever was.
The vast majority of people liked their current insurance, and opposed single payor. So they took away their insurance and made everything so affordable more people would favor single payor out of desperation.
The government admitted lying to us about “if you like your plan you can keep your plan,” “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor,” and my personal favorite, “the ACA will save families $2500 a year.” They knew these were lies at the time they uttered them.
It is unbelievable to me that more than 8 people in the US would reward that blatant dishonesty and manipulation, by wanting to give the US more power and control over the people through single payor. AFTER they already murdered honored vets by fraud in the only single payor system we already have, the VA. A system that the overwhelming majority of vests do not choose to use as their primary source of medical care.
So, clearly, those who favor single payor do not care about actual results.
Many more people leave the US for medical treatment than come here. That’s a fact.
Two tiered system. For those who want single payer, you can get folded into the VA system. We folks who don’t want govt. doctors keep our plans.
“Other countries have it.” And the wise and wealthy around the world, come to the USA when they need the best care. One of the reasons for the US Embassy takeover in Iran was our admitting the Shah for medical treatment. His French doctors were not nearly as good as docs here in the USA. The Shah pleaded for admittance and Carter let him in the US. Within a few weeks our Embassy was overtaken, Americans murdered and held hostage.
One of the things Congress does to perpetually stymie Medicare is to underfund the enforcement division (see Beldars’ post above). If they fully funded the enforcement and ACTUALLY tried to make it worse instead of making it fail, it would probably be a good system. Granted that all government programs need good oversight, but it is a real puzzle why so many R’s who hate government run for office and then do their best to make sure it stays awful.
Most legal immigrants pay for their own medical care. The Medicaid expansion was intended to help offset the care for others, but many states opted out–it’s the hospitals that end up eating that cost.
Somewhere between 80,000 and 200,000 people are killed every year in the US by doctors in PREVENTABLE medical errors. The reporting mechanism makes it difficult to say exactly how many. Many hundreds of thousands more are injured, hospitalized or re-hospitalized. The vast majority of them never sue (about 1 in 8 according to the IOM). Malpractice rates are high but in many states that is more connected with how insurance companies invest their premiums than the actual cost of litigation. Doctors are almost as bad as cops in policing their own ranks.
I will agree that the ACA is a mess. Too many compromises with too many players, in large part thanks to DINOs like Max Baucus and Ben Nelson. It’s time for a fully funded single payer plan. Other countries have done it, what are we so afraid of? Can America do anything anymore?
On the health care coverage topic: Perhaps have all the meth heads and tobacco smokers cramed into one collection of insurance coverage. That way those who do not preach the self inflicted wounds and injuries would not share in their cost with those who do. Different strokes for different folks.
To all humans on Planet Earth:
You’re a chump, you’re a chump. You’re a chump all the way.
From your first cigarette to your last dying day…
This is just in from the Yahoo news:
Reuters) – A group of 32 hospitals will pay a total of $28 million to settle allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare for a type of spinal fracture treatment, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday.
The hospitals, located in 15 states, frequently billed Medicare for inpatient stays following a procedure known as kyphoplasty, a treatment for certain spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis, the Justice Department said. The procedure, however, can be performed in many cases on an outpatient basis, the Department said.
Hospitals that agreed to some of the largest penalties in the settlement include Citrus Memorial Health System in Inverness, Florida ($2.6 million), Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, Florida ($2 million), and the Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic ($1.74 million).
A Martin Health spokesman said in a statement that the hospital conducted the procedures in a way that it “believed to be best for our patients with the information available at the time.”
A Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman said the procedures were medically necessary. Officials at other hospitals were not immediately available to comment.
The Justice Department has now reached settlements with more than 130 hospitals totaling approximately $105 million to resolve allegations that they mischarged Medicare for the spinal fracture procedure.
KarenS: Does your dad get social security old age benefits? Do you? What would he or you have and rely on if you relied on some private insurance scheme your whole life? Private monopoly capitalism gives you the likes of the half Albanian/half Croat who thrives in America but would get shunned in either of those two nation states. Croatia probably has better medical care than we do. Ask your doctor.
One issue that came up several times in this thread is the concern about medical decisions being made beyond one’s control, especially if the person is incapacitated.
This points out the importance of having an advanced medical directive. It’s usually included as a part of estate planning_ …but there are also some pretty good forms available at Kinko’s, Staples, etc.
And an open discussion with whoever is designated as the decision maker(s), and family members as well if the appointed agent is a non-relative.
I dunno….had he not gone one the radar his subsidiary could continue like the rest. Recall 2012 when the feds raked in over six billion for off lable use……for the
” victims” ….. No victims ever collected six billion. Moreover the ancillarry victims (the insured and taxpayer) never got a dime…..tho they funded the scheme. So the feds can stuff ponzi squarely up their own asses.
Nick:
Actions speak louder than words. If they really, sincerely, believed the ACA was so wonderful, they wouldn’t grant waivers to their cronies.
I agree that we should throw them all out and start afresh.
The US also spends quite a bit more on healthcare because we have some of the highest immigration rates in the world, spending quite a bit on both legal and illegal immigrants. We also have a struggling economy, high actual unemployment, with corresponding high rates of public assistance.
In many of these nanny state countries, the requirements to immigrate are Draconian. You have to prove you are going to be a contributing member of society, with a job waiting for you, among other things. We also have very high rates of malpractice insurance, as well as rampant fraud in Medicaid and Medicare, including unnecessary testing.
France is not nearly as friendly to tort litigation, so there is not he malpractice insurance/lawsuit costs. In addition, medical school, while difficult to enter, is free, so you also do not have student loan costs.
You must be careful to compare apples to apples.
It is a grave error that the ACA combined the worst of catastrophic and Cadillac plans. We now pay Cadillac plan premiums with catastrophic plan deductibles. The result is that health care is so expensive that patients forego care because they cannot afford the high deductibles. Or they struggle so much to pay the premiums that they cannot afford any additional cost of health care. Such as prescriptions on the newly tightened formularies.
It’s almost as if they took what people hated the most about the insurance industry and went with that.
The US government made such a mess of Obamacare that there is no way I would support giving them more power and control over the health care industry, such as a single payor system. Look at our government’s long history of overpayment, under delivery, abuse, fraud, inefficiency, lack of accountability.
Does anyone really think that well established history will just go away if our government went to single payor health care? We would just miraculously have an efficient, well oiled machine that wouldn’t dare to waste our money? That would care very deeply if its customers were not satisfied with their care and service?
Karen, No person, of any intellect and knowledge, could not pass a polygraph unless they admit socialized medicine means a SUBSTANTIAL diminishing and rationing of medical care. You notice I said pass a polygraph. Now, some of the dull/normal true believers here actually think socialized medicine is nirvana. But, I’m talking about the people of intellect w/ socialistic fervor. They could not pass a polygraph. Because, socialists want to punish the successful much more than they want to help the needy. We got a few here. They are the takers. Underachievers filled w/ resentment for those who have worked hard and made something of themselves. The class envy exudes from their pores. Some try and paint themselves as “businessmen” down w/ the struggle. I see right through that. And, one of these frauds knows, I know, they are not what they say they are. I have been finding frauds for over 30 years.
Here’s one of the great hypocrisies. The Dems just pushed ANOTHER delay on the tax for Cadillac health plans. That is to protect the unions, private and public. Of course, the equally scummy Rep. went along w/ it. The duopoly is just a circle jerk. Time to clean house.
More on the argument that single payor would be cheap and wonderful:
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/america-beware-single-payer-health-care-10625
Bigfatemike………just for clarification……were you saying that a $2500 reduction in MDs’ incomes would produce an $1100 reduction in U.S. per capita spending?
Big fat mike….I never saw anything about informed consent in the articles about the 60,000 British patients. The lack of informed consent was the problem…..they were not informed of possible treatment options. Treatment was simply withheld.
” Bigfatemike………just for clarification……were you saying that a $2500 reduction in MDs’ incomes would produce an $1100 reduction in U.S. per capita spending?”
Not quite. Perhaps I was unclear. What I was trying to say is that if wage costs are 40% (your number) then in the US we must be spending about $3600 on wages for each person each year (40% of approximately $9,000 = $3600).
In the numbers you mentioned, German doctors make about 70% of US doctors. If we were paying our doctors at the same rates as the German doctors we we would be paying only $2500 for those services – not $3600 dollars.
The difference between the $3600 we do pay and the $2500 we would pay if doctors were paid like their German counterparts is a savings of $1100.
Currently the US pays about $9,000 for health care for each person per year. If our doctors were paid at rates similar to the German doctors we would pay only $7900. Average per capita health care cost in Europe is about $3700 per year.
It is all guesstimate stuff. But these very rough calculations indicate that there must be much more than just wages that are driving up health care costs in comparison to other developed nations.
Bigfatmike…….I think the numbers I gave earlier on U.S. MDs income v. Those in other nations were for primary care physicians. The income gap is greater in favor of U.S. specialists, making the overall gaop higher.
I stated that the medical ESTABLISHMENT would have to take a huge reduction in compensation for services . That goes beyond practitioners, and would mean far lower compensation for hospital bills, diagnostic test, esp. CAT scans and MRIs, and much lower drug costs .
One correction…..I think that the MD bills…..physician services….are now about one third of total health care costs, not 40%. That’s what an up-to date number is.
U.S.health care expenses were c. 5% of GDP in 1965 when Medicare passed. They are c.18% of GDP now. Payroll taxes have skyrocketed over those 50 years, and higher and higher deductibles, exclusions, and copays make it advisable to pay extra for a Medigap policy. The original $3 Part B MC insurance is now over $100.
Since more people were covered, it’s to be expected that health care costs relative to GDP would rise.
What was not expected was that apples to apples cost per procedures/treatment/ hospitalization would increase at over 2× the overall CPI.
When Medicare passed 50 years ago, a local MD I knew( who had been in practice about 25 years) said “You won’t believe the amount of money that’s going to be made off this legislation”.
When massive amounts of government money are made available for any sector, without a corresponding set of strict price controls, steep price hikes are virtually inevitable. In the early years of Medicare, the ratio of the working population to the 65+ population was much higher. Smaller payroll taxes could continue, for a while……until costs exploded, and the demographics changed.
The earliest beneficiaries of any Ponzi- like scheme will always come out better…the first wave of MC beneficiaries, born about 1900, paid nothing or next to nothing in payroll taxes during there working years. For $3 Part B coverage, most of their medical expenses were covered.
Guess what happens to each succeeding generation when a system is front-loaded with great benefits and a nominal cost?
As government health care spending became a greater percentage of total costs, medical expenses went through the roof. That alone tells me that the administrative cost savings have not materialized as the “single payer” (gvt.) became more and more involved in health care.
…..bigfatmike…….I’ll try to give more detail on the pay gap between ALL MDs, including specialists, US. V. other countries. I remember that assumptions about administrative savings from a single payer system vary widely, but I’ll try to summarize with a good representative croess section.
It seems that there is a natural gravitation to the us or them, or the single big reason, or the knee jerk gravitation to debunk anything that has the faintest similarity to rational societal control. The problem is not to be found in any one percentage. The problem has metastasized throughout the health care system in the US. The way to bring down costs is to address each facet: insurance should be administered by the states as a system of taxation-money is money regardless of what you call it and if you pay less then that is the only issue, fraud, excessive procedures, superfluous machinery to compete for sick people, knock 20% off the price of drugs by banning stupid advertising to stupid people, bulk purchasing by government health care insurance systems of pharmaceuticals which would layer in guaranteed markets, increasing nurse/clinics and nurse practitioner/clinics to reduce costs, taking the wall street out of the medical industry, etc. Our peer nations fair much better for having done this. There are no poor doctors in European countries or in Canada. Doctors are quite well off in all these countries. There is nothing American in making the medical professional excessively wealthy from the misery of the people. Excess is not an integral or necessary part of the health care industry. The argument to this is ideological claptrap spouted by mindless ideologues.